Success.
The first step to stopping the President's trampling of the Constitution re: 4th amendment rights is complete. Rejoice, all those who have waited for this day!
Quote:Secret Court to Govern Wiretapping Plan
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department, easing a Bush administration policy, said Wednesday it has decided to give an independent body authority to monitor the government's controversial domestic spying program.
In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this authority has been given to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that it already has approved one request for monitoring the communications of a person believed to be linked to al-Qaida or an associated terror group.
The court orders approving collection of international communications - whether it originates in the United States or abroad - was issued Jan. 10, according to the two-page letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
"As a result of these orders, any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Gonzales wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
"Accordingly, under these circumstances, the President has determined not to reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorization expires," the attorney general wrote.
The Bush administration secretly launched the surveillance program in 2001 to monitor international phone calls and e-mails to or from the United States involving people suspected by the government of having terrorist links.
Tommorrow AG Gonzales will be appearing before Congress, in large part to talk about this program. It is no coincidence that the Bush admin released themselves from the program at the same time.
Step two, of course, is the investigation into how this travesty took place and how it was used. This will probably take up the bulk of this entire year, so don't hold your breath; there is a lot to this story and a lot of lies will need to be chopped through.
It is interesting to note that the Prez. and others made several claims over the years, including:
- that the terrorist surveillance program was
essential to catching terrorists here in America
- that they didn't have to follow the law anyways b/c Bush could just choose to ignore the traditional interpretation of the Constitution's seperation of powers;
- that even
talking about the program hurt the US.
These three are all now shown to be completely untrue. The Bush admin wouldn't have given up the program unless they felt there was a good chance that people are going to be in serious trouble because of it; they wouldn't be talking about the program if they honestly thought it hurt national security.
Cycloptichorn
